Howard Friedman on WBUR regarding the reinstatement of David Williams

David Williams is a Boston police officer who has been terminated by the police department in two separate cases. The first case involved the assault on undercover Boston police officer Michael Cox in 1995. Three officers were terminated, and only David Williams rejoined the force. In 2009, our firm sued him and the City of Boston after David Williams assaulted and choked Michael O’Brien, then a Middlesex County correctional officer. An arbitrator ruled in favor of David Williams. Now a court has ruled that he must be reinstated. Professor Craig Futterman from the University of Chicago Law School discusses the problem of disciplining police officers on WBUR. Civilians rarely complain, and when they do, police departments rarely take action. Finally, as shown in this case, even when police departments terminate a police officer, they often win their job back.